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Michael Clark trial: Defense says he was 'irresponsible' but not a 'cold-blooded, calculated killer'

By Mitchell Byars, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
10/10/2012 02:13:43 PM MDT

Updated:
10/10/2012 08:26:01 PM MDT

Michael Clark heads toward the courtroom with family and friends at the Boulder County Justice Center in Boulder, Colorado October 10, 2012. Clark is accused of the 1994 murder of Boulder city worker Marty Grisham.DAILY CAMERA/ MARK LEFFINGWELL (MARK LEFFINGWELL)

Michael Clark's murder trial in the 1994 shooting of Boulder city worker Marty Grisham began Wednesday with the defense pointing out a lack of evidence and prosecutors painting Clark as a man so desperate to join the military he was willing to kill.

Clark, 37, who at the time of the shooting was friends with Grisham's daughter, was always a suspect in the shooting but was never charged until earlier this year. Clark had stolen checks from Grisham shortly before the shooting, and prosecutors said with a previous arrest for stealing a motorcycle, another incident would have derailed his hopes of joining the military.

"His recruitment into the Marine Corps was hanging by a thread," said Deputy District Attorney John Kellner. "The defendant had a motive to kill Marty Grisham. He knew any more trouble and he was out, and his dream of joining the Marine Corps was done."

After Grisham reported the theft to police Nov. 1, 1994, he was having dinner with his girlfriend, Barbara Burger, when he answered a knock at the door at about 9:30 p.m. and was shot four times in the head and chest. No one ever caught a glimpse of the killer.

As he played a tape of Burger's 911 call, Kellner said the woman who took Grisham's theft report recognized the name as the man who had just reported the check theft to her.

"Instantly people who were suspects in the forgery became suspects in the murder," Kellner said.

In the report, Grisham had named three people who had access to the checks: his children, Loren and Kristen Grisham, and Clark. Loren Grisham was in Glenwood Springs and Kristen Grisham was with her mother and Marty Grisham's ex-wife, Pam, in Louisville at the time of the shooting, so police turned to Clark.

Clark admitted to the check fraud but has always denied involvement in the killing. But prosecutors said while in the Boulder County Jail, Clark told a cellmate, "They can't charge me with this; they'll never find the gun."

The gun used in the shooting was never found. But in 2011, investigators discovered Clark had purchased a 9mm gun before the shooting. A DNA test on a tube of lip balm found at the scene also came back a partial match to Clark, and he was arrested in January.

Clark's attorneys said no solid evidence that points to him as the shooter has surfaced in the 18 years since the crime.

"For many years they have desperately sought evidence that would tie Michael Clark to the murder," said his attorney Nelissa Milfeld. "Throughout all of the detectives' exhaustive searches, they did not find anything related to murder. They did not find anything because he did not murder Marty Grisham."

As for the contention that Clark shot Grisham to cover up the check fraud, Milfeld said Grisham had only made the report a few hours before the shooting and that Clark could not have known he was a suspect.

"The evidence will show at the time Marty Grisham was murdered, he didn't know who stole the checks, police didn't know, and Michael Clark certainly didn't know Marty Grisham knew he had stolen the checks," she said. "It does not add up, because Michael Clark did not murder Marty Grisham.

"It's no secret Michael Clark made poor decisions in the fall of 1994," she said. "He stole a motorcycle, he forged some checks. He was a 19-year-old who engaged in irresponsible behavior. Who he was not was a cold-blooded, calculated killer."

Several witnesses were called to the stand Wednesday, including Burger -- who now goes by Barbara Swider. She said the day before the shooting, Grisham had noticed some checks were missing and suspected it was one of his two children.

Swider -- who had met Grisham in August of that year -- said Grisham had often said he had a rocky relationship with his children and that he could be stern with them, but he was optimistic their relationship had turned a corner.

"I think he had changed," she said.

The night of the shooting, Swider said she was scheduled to have dinner with Grisham and was also supposed to meet his daughter, Kristen, for the first time. But Kristen Grisham left a message asking her father to call her and never showed up for dinner.

After the dinner, Swider told the jury, they heard a knock at the door, which surprised Grisham. She said the only thing he said was that it sounded like a "Loren knock," referring to his son.

Swider said Grisham went to answer the door and disappeared behind a wall. She said it sounded like he hesitated to answer the door and looked through a peephole, at which point he looked back at her with what she called a "serious" look. He then opened the door, and seconds later, she said, shots were fired.

"I smelled gunpowder, then I saw him lying there," she said.

Kirk Magill, the apartment manager, said he was one of the first to respond to the scene. Grisham had made a request to change his locks earlier, but Magill did not have time to make the change. When he heard gunshots and saw people looking in the direction of Grisham's apartment, he said he instantly knew who had been shot.

"It just sort of clicked," he said.

Boulder Sgt. Tom Trujillo, who was the lead investigator in the case, said the night of the killing, police looked for both Loren and Kristen Grisham. He said they also looked at Clark after his name came up as a friend of Kristen Grisham.

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